Spotlight
Hezbollah on Tuesday denied as “false accusations” a media report alleging that party officials are smuggling arms through Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.
“We strongly condemn these cheap fabrications and false accusations and we also deplore the collusion of domestic Lebanese sides who worked on promoting these lies and turning them into judicial complaints against Hezbollah,” the party said in a statement, referring to a report aired by the Saudi-owned al-Hadath TV.

More than 65 military personnel from the British Army’s Second Battalion The Parachute Regiment (2 PARA) will conduct Tuesday a fully integrated combined military exercise ‘Pegasus Cedar’ with their Lebanese counterparts, the Air Assault Regiment, and supported by the Lebanese Air Force.
The exercise will run for ten days, the British embassy in Beirut said in a statement.
French Special Presidential Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian has arrived in Beirut "to resume his mission" as France seeks a new push to end a political crisis that has left the country without a president for over a year.
Le Drian started Tuesday his talks in Lebanon by meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail.

Israel has accused Iran of building an airport in southern Lebanon to be used as a launchpad for attacks against Israelis across the border, signaling a possible escalation in tensions between the regional foes.
Speaking at a high-profile security conference hosted by Reichman University near Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Iran has been building a runway that slices through forested mountains just 20 kilometers from Israel's northern border. Gallant displayed satellite photographs that he said showed the site, where the Iranian national flag and the flag of Hezbollah could be seen.

An "immediate and lasting cease-fire" was declared Monday after a top Lebanese general met with officials from rival Palestinian factions, following days of fighting in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, which left several people dead and dozens wounded.
The new ceasefire failed to halt the fighting, however, residents and officials in the camp said in the hours after the agreement was announced. It was the latest in a series of cease-fires that only lasted for hours before fighting erupted again.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has denied reports claiming that he had suspended his presidential dialogue initiative.
“I have not suspended my initiative. To the contrary, it is ongoing, continuous and in harmony with the French initiative. The two initiatives complement each other and their essence is the same: dialogue and consensus for the election of a president,” Berri said in an interview with al-Liwaa newspaper published Monday.

At least six people have been killed and dozens wounded in five days of continuous clashes in the Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, first responders said Monday.
Violence broke out late Thursday in the camp, just weeks after similar clashes pitted members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement against Islamist militants.

The Lebanese Forces has informed French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian that it will not attend any dialogue conference prior to the election of a new president, LF lawmaker Ghada Ayoub said.
“The Strong Republic bloc’s specifications for the president and his missions are clear and in line with the Doha meeting’s closing statement,” Ayoub said in an interview on Radio Free Lebanon.

The U.N. human rights chief decried Monday the lack of accountability for the 2020 Beirut port blast, urging an international probe into the massive explosion that killed that killed more than 220 people, wounded 7,500 and destroyed swathes of the city.
"Three years after the Beirut explosion, ... there has been no accountability," Volker Turk told the United Nations Human Rights Council, adding "it may therefore be time to consider an international fact-finding mission to look into human rights violations related to this tragedy."

Cabinet failed to convene Monday at the Grand serail to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis amid a new wave of illegal crossings, due to a lack of quorum.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called instead for a consultative ministerial meeting at his office.
